* Robert Klemme <bob.news / gmx.net> [Nov 18, 2004 13:20]:
> > Lately there have been a bunch of posts on this list about regular
> > expressions in Ruby and people seem to cry wolf whenever they don't
> > get them quite right.  By crying wolf here I mean that they suspect
> > a bug.  That's most often the same as blaming core-dumps on the
> > operating system.  It's time that people try to reason about what
> > they've actually written and look at the documentation (which may be
> > too limited?) before complaining here.

> In principle this applies for all kind of questions and complaints.  Maybe
> it's just a sign that regular expressions are not easy to grasp for people
> without CS background.

Perhaps, but it's sad that no one can for their life consider the fact
that maybe they've done something wrong themselves, not the writers of
the software/programming language they are using.

> > I am not suggesting that these question stop entirely, but I request
> > that they be well thought out before.  Still, there seems to be a
> > need for a FAQ or similar, covering regular expression basics and
> > common pitfalls - perhaps even including common idioms and uses in
> > Ruby.

> Like http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?RegexpCookbook ?

Hardly.  That page is for writing regular expressions that match some
specific data, not a discussion about how to write and use regular
expressions in the large.  Still, a wiki page would work fine.
	nikolai

--
::: name: Nikolai Weibull    :: aliases: pcp / lone-star / aka :::
::: born: Chicago, IL USA    :: loc atm: Gothenburg, Sweden    :::
::: page: www.pcppopper.org  :: fun atm: gf,lps,ruby,lisp,war3 :::
main(){printf(&linux["\021%six\012\0"],(linux)["have"]+"fun"-97);}